Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today told Parliament he was not aware of the corruption case against former Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) P J Thomas before appointing him to the post.
The PM’s statement sparked a fresh round of controversy and the opposition was quick to question the role of former minister of state for department of personnel and training (DoPT) Prithviraj Chavan, now chief minister of Maharashtra.
When Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley and Left members sought clarifications on the CVC’s appointment from him, the PM said: “Until I went to the meeting of the selection committee, I was not aware there was any such case of Palmolein and that would involve corruption. I became aware of this case only when the honourable Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha (Sushma Swaraj) raised the issue in the meeting.”
In what is seen as a clear indictment of Chavan, the Prime Minister said the notes for the selection committee were prepared “under the guidance of the minister of state incharge of the DoPT”.
“The honest answer is that the note which was prepared by the DoPT did not contain this information about the charge sheet,” the PM said.
While the Left parties wanted a scrutiny of Chavan’s role in the selection process, Jaitley asked: “Who had prepared the list of the three candidates, which included the charge sheeted person for appointment to this august office? Was it done by the DoPT or the PMO? Or did the DoPT prepare this list at the instance of the PMO?”
Latching on to the PM’s admission that there was an error of judgment, Jaitley added: “Does the Prime Minister now intend to fix accountability within the government of whoever was responsible for pushing a charge sheeted person to this august institution?”
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Chavan was known to be close to Singh and had served the PMO since the inception of the UPA government in 2004. Congress sources said the PM was interested in elevating him to cabinet rank before the Adarsh scam led to a change in the chief minister.
Singh, however, owned “accountability and responsibility” for the Thomas episode. The CVC’s appointment was recently struck down by the Supreme Court.
Singh also informed the Upper House that he believed the required vigilance clearances had been obtained, as Thomas was the chief secretary of Kerala and later a secretary at the Centre.
Jaitley also questioned why the government insisted on Thomas even after Sushma Swaraj had recorded her dissent to the appointment. “Why did the government persist that it was Mr Thomas and Thomas alone who could be appointed and not any of the other two who had a cleaner record? Was it possible to have two views on the subject when the choice was between a chargesheeted official and those with a clean record?”